The Garden of Wilde Flowers

Destruction of individuality

What makes us what we are? What make us different from the rest, from the flock, from the same mass that we compound sharing the same species that our neighbors, the same cultural background, and laws that delimitate our behavior? Only the expression of our thoughts and beliefs, regardless of their little “originality” or the kind of judgment they can received from others, they are ours, and completely unique. Needs, goals, expectations, experiences, previous knowledge and personal inferences that we can have in given circumstances about different realities will make us act and react being faithful to our own nature, the free-will that all of us have and that makes this world so diverse and complex is the mainstay of our self, it’s what construct our individuality, our identity.

"A person's identity is the totality of one's self-construal, in which how one construes oneself in the present expresses the continuity between how one construes oneself as one was in the past and how one construes oneself as one aspires to be in the future" (Weinreich, 1986)

For the relevance of thoughts to make us something more than “flesh and blood” it’s that I get interested in comparing the presence (or lack of it) in both novels: Orwell’s “1984” and the graphic: Moore’s “V for vendetta”

In 1984, Orwell portrays the destruction of human nature (self-realization) by using different symbols such as the thought police, Big Brother, and telescreen. Likewise, the movie V for Vendetta show representations of the manipulation of the British parliament by employing the Fingermen, Norsefire Party, and BTN. These symbols give an idea of how the authority can take over the privilege to claim one's desires and individualism physically, intellectually and emotionally. How the things that make us unique can be taken away. Because when you lose what makes you, you are empty enough to let external ideals to easily fit and replace them inside your mind.

“The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought.” (1983)

We can see this when in 1984 people were extremely afraid to do anything that was not routine. Even changing their route to work could because enough to be arrested for thought crime. While some things were obvious, such as not participating in the Two Minutes Hate, other things were not so clear-cut, such as facial expressions. A person couldn’t exhibit disapproval or distaste that shows that he or she is going against what the Party claims because they would be notified to the thought police: "A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering yourself". Basic and natural functions of our organisms are forbidden, people is not allowed to feel individual emotions inside, so they are forced to control their facial expressions. Similarly, the identical type of police exists in V for Vendetta known as the Fingermen. When Evey breaks the curfew (imposed to every citizen, strict laws which everyone was aware of), the Fingermen can legally punish her as they want, even intending to rape her and kill her for this, picturing the physical torture they can afflict on people. So, to evade any physical agony, they start to lose their identity, their power to dream and their aspirations in order to suffer less damage and live with less fear.

This is controlled by Surveillance in both novels. In 1984, Orwell describes that the telescreens receive and transmit both audio and video, meaning that anything the people do can be seen and anything they say, even a low whisper can be heard. So, that shows that even at night, when they can not be seen by the telescreens, they can still be heard and can never have privacy or intimacy for themselves.  At night, in our own homes, we feel safe, feel comfortable in doing whatever we please. But in both novels, the law is enforced at night, when people are most vulnerable, when we sleep, rest, prepare for the next day. When you can not sleep, your privacy is being interrupted, and you lack of intimacy, a violation to your individuality and identity.

Moreover,  the telescreens are constantly showing government propaganda that are just lies about war and economic situation of the state, but it has to be recognized as the truth, because for them there’s nothing else. In that matter, they can never turn off or avoid the constant messages, social rituals (2 minutes of hate), reminders (“Big Brother is watching you”) and daily brainwash they are immersed into.  In V for Vendetta, it is significantly less obvious the intrusion but still very present. During several of the “inner council” meetings with Adam Susan, council members mention audio heard from people, or the monitoring of phone calls supposedly to get information of protecting them from terrorists.

With that kind of control and censorship, the government can modify every aspect of people life’s, they can monitor every minute and detail, people we relate with and how, what we can say or not, and therefore, limiting language usage and actual thinking, suppressing all we believe in, our preferences and tastes, and the development of our self. If you can not have good friends, love, hate, have sex, express feelings or have an opinion, all that is left from us is a number stuck to pieces of flesh and nothing else. They can’t be free.

'You're in a prison, Evey. You were born in a prison. You've been in a prison so long, you no longer believe there is a world outside. That's because you're afraid, Evey. You're afraid because you can feel freedom closing in upon you. You're afraid because freedom is terrifying. Don't back away from it, Evey. Part of you understands the truth even as part pretends not to. You were in a cell, Evey. They offered you a choice between the death of your principles and the death of your body. You said you'd rather die. You faced the fear of your own death and you were calm and still. The door of the cage is open, Evey. All that you feel is the wind from outside.” (V)

This is how any sample of individuality would be a rebellion to the governments, for example when Winston plays with the discovery of individuality and the concept of being unique writing in his diary:

"The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death" (1984)

This standing as an expression of freedom within the repression. This intensifies his immersion in his own thoughts  and reflections about his life and people around him, making him notice Julia, who embodied her own kind individualism:

"Julia, however, seemed unable to mention the Party, and especially the Inner Party, without using the kind of words that you saw chalked up in dripping alley-ways. He did not dislike it. It was merely one symptom of her revolt against the Party and all its ways, and somehow it seemed natural and healthy, like the sneeze of a horse that smells bad hay".(1984)

Her behavior is frequently contrasting against the regime’s expectations, constructing her individuality. She attempts to obtain superiority over conformity, and she’s a little bit more selfish than Winston’s moral sense of liberation.

Another case in which we can consider individuality as a final point are dreams. In dreams, we can free ourselves completely, unconsciously, but release anyways. Winston frequently has dreams that reveal information about this past and foretell his future. They represent his individuality since that is the only place where the Thought Police cannot tell what he is thinking, as long as his external behavior appears normal. Through dreams, Winston can behave and think however his individuality deems. But later when he is  brainwashed by the Party, he is completely controlled over him, as they now have complete control over every thought, dream and action he has or wants to do. Without access to his dreams, thoughts or reflections, he ends up losing everything,  losing his individuality, his last part of integrity.

Differently, even when V for Vendetta’s also has a suffocation of individuality, V takes care over conveying the powerful tool that individuality is, how necessary it is, how living ideas inspire other people to take actions, to create ideals, to change fear for decision. He shows that people should be afraid of the government, it is the government which should be afraid of people! Because human choice is the antidote to political and social injustices. This is very well represented by Evey disguised as V:

“...choose what comes next. Lives of your own, or a return to chains.” (V)

This make us reflect on how individuals have to make conscious choices to create the resistance in times of political suppression, and that personal notions are the opposite force of totalitarianism, and the thought expressed is the best tool to break the imposed silence of individuals.

“Behind this mask, there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask, there is an idea... and ideas are bulletproof.” (V)

To sum up, the reading of this novels make us understand and reflect of how we are important pieces of any social system, and that if abusive political systems get power to control us it is because we are handing it out ourselves. 2+2 its 4.

Because of this, I just wanted to share this video of a song that I like by Muse, “Uprising” that talks about how we have the power in our hands and we don’t realize it, how we can plant seeds of our ideas and create changes, we should not conform!

To reflect: To what extent do you express yourself, knowing the consequences that it has on your social environment? How much are you able to sacrifice in order to be true to yourself? And, do you think nowadays systems we are immersed in, dismantles your own individuality and identity?

References:

·         Weinreich, P and Saunderson, W. (Eds) (2003). "Analysing Identity: Cross-Cultural, Societal and Clinical Contexts." London: Routledge.

·         Sökefeld, M. (1999). "Debating Self, Identity, and Culture in Anthropology." Current Anthropology 40 (4), August–October, 417–31.

·         Peck, J., & Coyle, M. (1984). Literary terms and criticism: A student's guide. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Higher and Further Education Division, Macmillan.

·         Moore, A. (w), Lloyd, D. (1989). "V for Vendetta". London: DC Comics